Agent-initiated dynamic requeing of misrouted calls in call-routing systems

ABSTRACT

Apparatus and methods are provided for re-routing mis-routed calls in call-routing systems and call-in centers wherein provision is made for commands to be sent from an agent receiving a mis-routed call to a routing intelligence over a digital network connection, causing a mis-routed call to be inserted in a queue of calls to be routed ahead of calls received to be routed after the first call was mis-routed. In some embodiments the first agent may simply send back the mis-routed call to be requeued. In other instances the agent may confer with a second agent at a station to which the call is to be forwarded, before the caller is connected to the second agent. In still other instances the first agent, the second agent, and the caller may be conferenced together.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the area of telephone call processing andswitching, and pertains more particularly to intelligent call-routingsystems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephone call processing and switching systems are, at the time of thepresent patent application, relatively sophisticated, computerizedsystems, and development and introduction of new systems continues. Muchinformation on the nature of such hardware and software is available ina number of publications accessible to the present inventor and to thosewith skill in the art in general.. For this reason, much minute detailof known systems is not reproduced here, as to do so would obscure thefacts of the invention.

One document which provides considerable information on intelligentnetworks is "ITU-T Recommendation Q.1219, Intelligent Network User'sGuide for Capability Set 1", dated April, 1994. This document isincorporated herein by reference.

At the time of filing the present patent application there continues tobe remarkable growth in telephone-based information systems. Recentlyemerging examples are telemarketing operations and technical supportoperations, among many others, which have grown apace with developmentand marketing of, for example, sophisticated computer equipment. Moretraditional are systems for serving customers of such as large insuranceorganizations. In some cases organizations develop and maintain theirown telephony operations with purchased or leased equipment, and in manyother cases, companies are outsourcing such operations to firms thatspecialize in such services.

A large technical support operation serves as an example in thisspecification of the kind of applications of telephone equipment andfunctions to which the present invention pertains and applies. Considersuch a system having a country-wide matrix of call-in centers, which ismore and more a relatively common practice to provide redundancy anddecentralization, which are often considered desirable in suchoperations. Also in such large organizations, business firms have anational, and in many cases a world-wide customer base. Such a systemhandles a large volume of calls from people seeking technicalinformation on installation of certain computer-oriented equipment, andthe calls are handled by a finite number of trained operatorsdistributed over the decentralized matrix of call-in centers.

A problem in operating such a call-in system is in identifying callerrequirements and routing individual calls based on the requirements tooperators possessing the requisite skills and information to efficientlyserve the callers. In most such systems there are a number of sortingcriteria to consider. There may be, for example, several products forwhich technical support is provided. Calls from persons seekingtechnical aid for a specific product need to be routed to thoseoperators that are trained in support for the specific product.Moreover, there may be such as language requirements as well. In someparts of the country there may be a need for Spanish-speaking operatorsto serve those customers who speak Spanish rather than English, or whomay be more comfortable in Spanish. Sorting and routing calls in thisinstance is often termed skill-based routing in the art.

Another desirable goal in such a system is to provide efficient andeffective service to the largest number of customers with limitedoperator resources. To accomplish this end it is necessary to seek toroute calls with the most up-to-date information concerning operatoravailability possible, so callers may be cued in the most efficientmanner, avoiding long waiting periods for service. It is desirable, thatis, to route calls in a manner that minimizes wait time for thecustomer. This is not only advantageous for the customer, but also tothe organization providing the service, as more may then be done withless resources.

Conventionally routing of calls is done statistically, such as bytracking percentages of call load or by some Management InformationSystem (MIS). In these systems data that is at least several minutes oldis typically used for call-routing purposes, and, in the few minutesbetween real-time and data age, load distribution can shiftsignificantly, leading to very inefficient routing. Moreover the data isnot always of the sort that could be used for most-efficient routing.Load distribution, for example, does not tell the routing intelligencewhere there may be an operator with the requisite skills to handle anincoming or waiting call, who is also free of other calls at the moment.

What is clearly needed is a better system and methods to do call routingin real time or very near real time, so delays are kept to a minimum andthe best use of available resources may be made.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a telephonecall-routing system adapted for routing an incoming call from a callerto individual agents at individual ones of remote telephone stations isprovided, comprising a first telephony switch adapted for receiving andforwarding the incoming call to individual ones of the remote telephonestations; and a processor system coupled to the first telephony switchand coupled to the remote telephone stations by a digital network link.The processor system is adapted to control queuing and routing ofincoming calls, and to respond to signals received over the digitalnetwork link to re-route the call previously routed to a first agent ata first one of the remote telephone stations by inserting the previouslyrouted call into a queue with priority ahead of calls incoming after thefirst call was originally routed.

The digital network can be of several sorts, but is preferably a TCP/IPlink. In some embodiments the processor system is further adapted tore-route the returned call in response to signals received over thedigital network link by causing the first agent at the first one of theremote telephone stations to be connected to a second agent at a secondone of the remote telephone stations prior to the caller being connectedto the second agent. In other embodiments the processor system isfurther adapted in response to signals received over the digital networklink to conference the first agent at the first one of the remotetelephone stations with a second agent at a second one of the remotetelephone stations together with the caller.

In another embodiment of the invention a call-in center is providedcomprising a telephony switch having telephony lines adapted forreceiving calls and serving a plurality of telephone workstations towhich it may route calls received; and a telephony server connected by ahigh speed digital link to the telephony switch and having a digitalnetwork connection to remote digital devices. In this embodiment thetelephony server is adapted to respond to first signals provided by afirst agent at a first one of the telephone workstations to send secondsignals over the digital network connection commanding one of the remotedigital devices to reroute a call first routed to the first one of thetelephone workstations. In this embodiment the second signals comprisecommands to the remote device to requeue the call first routed withpriority.

In some embodiments second signals comprise commands to the remotedigital device to reroute the call first routed to a second agent at asecond call-in center, allowing the first agent to confer with thesecond agent before the caller is connected to the second agent, and inother embodiments the second signals comprise commands to the remotedigital device to reroute the first call routed to a second agent at asecond call-in center, conferencing the first agent, the second agent,and the caller.

In yet another embodiment a call-in center is provided comprising atelephony switch having telephony lines adapted for receiving calls andserving a plurality of telephone workstations to which it may routecalls received; and a telephony server connected by a high speed digitallink to the telephony switch. In this embodiment the telephony server isadapted to respond to first signals provided by a first agent at a firstone of the telephone workstations to reroute a call first routed to thefirst one of the telephone workstations to a second agent at a secondone of the telephone workstations connected to the same telephonyswitch. In the rerouted call the first agent may be connected to thesecond agent before the caller is connected to the second agent, or thefirst agent, the second agent, and the caller may be conferenced.

Methods for practicing the present invention are provided below as wellas unique connections and adaptations for apparatus. In variousembodiments of the invention significant improvements are made overconventional systems for rerouting calls, such that efficiency and useof resources arc enhanced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of a call-routing system in the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a call-routing system according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a call and information routing system accordingto an alternative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a timeline diagram showing latency in conventional operationsand unique operational decisions according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is a timeline diagram showing further latency in conventionaloperations and unique operational decisions according to an alternativeembodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of a call-routing system in the prior artcomprising two call-in centers 121 and 122. These call-in centerscomprise equipment sometimes known in the art as Customer PremisesEquipment (CPE). Each of call-in centers 121 and 122 includes acomputerized call receiving and switching system (123 for center 121 and124 for center 122) providing routing to individual telephone stations.There may be many more than two call-in centers in many embodiments, buttwo centers is considered sufficient to illustrate the art andembodiments of the invention.

Each call-in center 121 and 122 included in this example includes atleast two telephone-equipped workstations, which in nearly all instancesare computer stations having (not shown in FIG. 1) a computerworkstation with a video display which may be connected to othernetworked server equipment holding the service organization's relevantdatabase. For example, the computer device manufacturer in this examplemay have a connected database including the names, addresses, and otherinformation relating to customers who have registered their purchaseswith the company, and also the resource information for operators toaccess in helping callers with their problems.

Workstations 131 and 132 connect to call center 121 in FIG. 1, andinclude telephones 136 and 138, and workstations stations 133 and 134connect to call center 122, and include telephones 140 and 142. Theremay similarly be many more than two workstations in each call center,but two will suffice to describe the art and embodiments of the presentinvention.

In the descriptions and the drawings each telephone connected in acall-in center is a part of a workstation for a trained operator in theexamples herein. The trained operators may be considered to each have aunique set of skills, resources and knowledge, such as, but not limitedto, language capability, access to technical information, and specifictraining.

Calls are routed to call-in centers 121 and 122 over conventionaltelephony lines 105 and 106 respectively from remote origination points(a customer seeking technical aid has placed a call, for example, to anadvertised or otherwise provided 1-800 number). Cloud 100 represents thetelephone network system, and is referred to herein as a network cloud.This may be, for example purposes, a regional portion of the world-widenetwork, or may represent the entire world-wide network of connectedtelephone equipment. All calls routed to call-in centers 121 and 122originate somewhere in network cloud 100.

In this example an incoming call to be routed to a call-in center isrepresented by vector 107 into a Service Control Point (SCP) 101. SCP101 is telephone switching equipment typically local to the callingparty, and is coupled to an adjunct processor 103 which is in turncoupled to a call-distribution processor 104. Call distributionprocessor 104 has access in this conventional system to call statisticsdescribing call distribution between call-in centers 121 and 122(typically over a larger number of call-in centers than two), deliveredperiodically over lines 110 and 111. Lines 110 and 111 represent one-wayrouting of statistical information and data which in reality is sharedwith all local systems where and as needed. In this conventional examplean intelligent peripheral 102 is also provided to accomplish initialcustomer contact.

Calls from customers (vector 107) are initially processed with the aidof adjunct processor 103, call distribution processor 104, andintelligent peripheral 102. Statistical call loading data is updated tocall distribution processor 104 typically on an average at five to tenminute intervals. As an example of initial processing, a caller may beasked for such as a language preference and for the product and type ofinformation sought. This information is solicited and entered byintelligent peripheral 102. Other sorting is done by adjunct processor103 based on information provided by distribution processor 104.

After initial processing the incoming call is routed to either call-incenter 121 or 122 based upon distribution statistics. Informationelicited in initial processing such as language and product category issent along with the call as DTMF or caller-ID type information. At thecall-in center the call is routed to a specific waiting loop based onsuch information as language and product, and the call then waits untilthe operator at the particular workstation (131, 132, 133, 134) finishesprevious calls and becomes available for the instant call. Here is thesource of the enormous irritation and frustration experienced by bothcalling parties and operators in conventional systems.

It will be apparent to those with skill in the art that SCP 101, adjunctprocessor 104, distribution processor 104, and intelligent peripheral102 may be software implementations in computerized equipment, and notnecessarily separate hardware entities.

In this example of conventional equipment and processing, littlereal-time or near real-time variable information is available forcall-routing purposes, and some callers may face long delays whileothers are served relatively quickly. The allocation and management ofresources is poor and unbalanced.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a call-routing system according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention. At the call origination end astatistical processor 208 is added, communicating with distributionprocessor 104 by link 214. At each of the call-in centers a telephonyserver (T-S) is connected to the associated switching system. At call-incenter 121, T-S 223 is connected by data link 212, and at call-in center122 T-S 224 is connected by data link 213. T-S 223 is coupled tostatistical processor 208 by a TCP/IP link 210 and T-S 224 is coupled tostatistical processor 208 by TCP/IP link 211. T-S 223 and T-S 224 arefull-service computer servers having code routines for commandcommunication with the connected switching equipment as well as remotestatistical processor 208 (and with many other remote statisticalprocessors).

It will be apparent to those with skill in the art that the TCP/IPnature of communication on lines 210 and 211 is a matter of convenience,providing near real-time updating of information. TCP/IP is a collectionof data protocols which are not discussed in detail here, as theseprotocols are in use and very well-known in the art. There are otherprotocols that might be used, new protocols may be developed to providebetter and faster communication, and other methods may be used to speedup communication. For example, Urgent Dispatch Protocol (UDP) may beused in some instances, which, for example, allows data packets tobypass routing queues.

In this unique system, transactions in switching system 123 are reportedin near real time over computer telephony interface 212 to T-S 223,while transactions in switching system 124 are reported to T-S 224 overCIT interface 213. The telephony servers monitor all activity of theconnected switching systems. Control routines in each T-S determineinformation relevancy and communicate information in near real time tostatistical processor(s) 208. Given the language problem, for example,the pool of Spanish-speaking operators as distributed in real time overall calling centers may be tracked in processor 208, and updated ascalls are completed and operators become available for new calls.Incoming calls may be routed to operator stations as operators becomeavailable in real time, avoiding queuing and long delays.

In FIG. 2 as an example, the pool of Spanish-speaking operators isrepresented by inclusion area 241, encompassing workstations 132 atcall-in center 121 and workstation 134 at call-in center 122. Assumeboth operators are available, and a first call at SCP 101 is receivedrequiring a Spanish-speaking operator, which is routed to call-in center123 and telephone 138. The first call will last ten minutes (arbitraryfor illustration). The use of the Spanish resource at call-in center 121is immediately reported over CTI link 212 to T-S 223, and from T-S 223to statistical processor 208 via TCP/IP link 210. Processor 208 then"knows" that the operator at workstation 132 is no longer available.

A second call is now received requesting a Spanish-speaking operator.The second call is routed to the remaining Spanish-speaking operator atworkstation 134 at call-in center 122 (telephone 142), and the use ofthis resource is reported to T-S 224 via link 213, then by T-S 224 tostatistical processor 208 via TCP/IP link 211. Assume for illustrationthis second call will last thirty seconds.

Now a third call is received requesting a Spanish-speaking operator. Inthe system of the preferred embodiment the third incoming call can beheld at SCP 101 and routed to whichever operator becomes available first(telephone 142 at workstation 134 in less than thirty seconds). In theconventional system the call would be routed to call-in station 121 andto the operator at workstation 132 (telephone 138) based on load ratherthan availability, and the third caller would wait for most of tenminutes, while the operator at workstation 134 becomes available in lessthan thirty seconds.

In a preferred embodiment statistical processor 208 communicates withdistribution processor 104 over link 214 in a manner that emulatesconventional statistical routing, so no alteration in specific equipmentis required to implement the invention in existing telephony equipmentin most cases.

In another aspect of the present invention enhanced functionality isprovided in routing and processing telephone calls between organizedcall-in centers established for servicing callers seeking services andthe callers themselves. This enhanced functionality enables operators atsuch call-in centers to have immediate access to information derivedfrom incoming calls and callers in initial processing.

In descriptions above, referring now to FIG. 1, an intelligentperipheral 102 was described, serving to provide initial processing ofcalls from persons seeking services from an organization providing suchservices from one or more call-in centers. In the above descriptionsalso, such callers were referred to as customers, following a continuingexample utilizing an organizational structure having a technical servicecall-in operation for such as a computer equipment manufacturer.

Following the example of persons calling in to seek technical servicesin installing and/or configuring computer-related products, when such acaller first connects (FIG. 1, vector 107, SCP 101), initial processingwill typically include eliciting information from the caller relative tosuch as caller preferences and relationship of the caller to the serviceprovider's customer database. For example, the caller may have justpurchased a model of one of the provider's products, meant to beinstalled in or connected to a particular make and model computer, andis experiencing difficulty in installing the product and making itfunction properly with the computer. In another instance such a callermay have had the provider's product for some time, and is only recentlyexperiencing difficulty.

Most manufacturers provide a service whereby a customer may register aproduct, and in the process of registration a range of information fromthe customer is solicited, which will typically include the exact natureof the product in question, including model number, and also thecharacteristics of the computer (in this example) to which the customerhas installed or is attempting to install the product. In the latterinstance above, the customer may already be registered, and if so, thefact of registration may allow the service provider to retrieve at somepoint considerable information from the provider's database relevant tothe call. This information cannot be retrieved, however, until the factof registration and some key to the customer's identity relative to thecustomer database is established. At the very least the originatingphone number of the calling customer should be known, if not blocked,and this information may be enough to associate the caller withinformation in a database.

The example given here of a customer of a manufacturer of a computerproduct is but one of a very broad range of situations that may beencountered. Others include such as insurance companies, where personscalling in may be policy-holders; credit-card organizations, wherecallers may be seeking information such as current balance, availablecredit, and the like; and many others. In any case, a call-in customermay have certain preferences, such as language for the transaction, andthere may be a need to identify the caller and his/her relationship tothe organization providing the call-in service.

Most everyone is familiar with call-in services of the sort describedherein, and there are likely few who look forward to having to use sucha service. The reason is that long delays in establishing useful contactwith an operator who has proper information available to help, arecommon.

An object of the present invention is to enhance call-in services,partially through more efficient initial processing, to the advantage ofboth the customer and the provider, by removing many of the causes oflong delays.

Information is typically elicited in initial processing by interactionof the calling party with IP 102, which may be adapted to recitespecific queries to the caller, and to record and forward the caller'sresponses. By recording is meant enrolling the nature of the responsesin some form, not necessarily by voice recording. For example, a typicalinitial processing transaction involves a recorded query to the callersuch as "Do you prefer Spanish or English". In some locales the querymight be phrased in a language other than English. The caller isrequested to respond typically by selecting a key on the touch-tone padof his/her telephone. In many instances now as well, voice recognitionis built into the initial processing machine intelligence, and thecustomer is instructed in verbal response, such as: "Say Yes or No". TheIP in this case recognizes the response and codes data accordingly.

Information derived from a call or caller in such initial processing inconventional systems, as has been described herein above, is coded andattached, such as by DTMF or as caller-ID type information, to the callforwarded to the call-in center selected by use of information providedperiodically to distribution processor 104. After initial processing isdone and a call-in center is selected, the call is forwarded via lines105/106 to call-in center 121/122 (FIG. 1). For purposes of simplicityin description, call-in center 121 will be assumed below to be theselected call-in center to which an example call is routed.

At call-in center 121 control code associated with switch 123 serves todecode at least some of the attached initial processing information,such as language preference, which is then used to further route thecall to one or another telephone at an operator workstation, such astelephone 136 at operator workstation 131. The operator workstations(not necessarily the telephones) in the conventional operation, as wasdescribed above, are connected to a network having one or more serverswhich store the customer database for the organization providing theservice. It is therefore only after the call is finally connected to theoperator's workstation, after perhaps a frustrating delay, that anyinformation attached to the call about the customer may be compared tothe customer database, providing (hopefully) thereby further valuableinformation for the operator at the workstation to deal with theincoming call.

In an aspect of the invention described above with reference to FIG. 2,telephony servers are added to the call-in centers, each having ahigh-speed bus connection to associated switching equipment. In eachcase the telephony server is coupled to remote statistical processors atregional service control points, and connected to statistical processors208 at remote call-in points.

FIG. 3 illustrates a further enhancement of the present invention. Inthis embodiment at each call-in center the service-provider has anetwork including a file server containing the service provider'scustomer database. In FIG. 3 such a network 301 is shown associated withcall-in center 121. This or a similar arrangement may be assumed to beassociated also with call-in center 122, and with other call-in centersnot shown, although the repetitive details are not shown in the FIG. inorder to avoid confusion.

Network 301 shown associated with call-in center 121 includes a server303 having the service provider's customer database, and is coupled bothto T-S223 and to workstations 131 and 132. In this system eachworkstation (131, 132) has a display terminal (VDU) connected to thenetwork. VDU 331 is shown associated with workstation 131 and VDU 332 isassociated with workstation 132. Such workstations typically include akeyboard and other input devices such as a pointer device.

In this embodiment as in embodiments described previously, when a callis received at SCP 101 (vector 107), initial processing is accomplishedwith the aid of IP 102, and information deemed possibly helpful toexpedite the call and to route the call for most efficient service iselicited from the caller, as has been described above. Rather thanattaching such information to the routed call, however, as was describedabove, the information is sent to a call-in center in parallel with therouted call (after the call is routed).

In this embodiment, after initial processing, elicited information isused to select one or more potential call-in centers for routing. Forexample, the caller may request a Spanish-speaking operator, and,through information available to statistical processor 208 the availablepool of Spanish-speaking operators is known. Just as in the previousdescriptions statistical processor 208 has up-to-the-minute informationas to which Spanish-speaking operators are available.

In the previously described embodiment the information available tostatistical processor 208 was used to route the call to a call-incenter, and the information elicited in initial processing was attachedto the call to be decoded and used at the call-in center. In theembodiment described with reference to FIG. 3 the information availableto statistical processor 208 is used as before to select a call-incenter (which, for descriptive purposes we will assume to be call-incenter 121 in FIG. 3), and processor 208 then negotiates a semaphorewith T-S 223 over communication link 210.

In this process statistical processor 208, having very recent data thata workstation at call-in center 121 is the best fit for the instantcall, queries T-S 223, which continuously monitors transactions byswitching equipment 123. If the best-fit station is available, T-S 223passes back a token (semaphore) to forward the call. The token can bethe phone number of the workstation to which the call is to be directed,or it can be a code that may be deciphered by some means at the caller'send to determine the number to which the call is to be directed.

When the token is passed from T-S 223 to statistical processor 208 forthe instant call, two parallel communications are set in motion. One isthat the call is routed on line 105 to switching circuitry 123 withinformation to further direct the call to the selected workstation. Theother is that the initial processing information elicited from thecaller, some of which may have been used in negotiating a destinationfor the call, is now forwarded to call-in center 121, not as addedinformation on the phone call, but in parallel over link 210 directlyfrom statistical processor 208 to T-S 223.

As T-S 223 is coupled to network 301, and as all of the workstationsconnected to network 301 have each a VDTJ in close proximity to atelephone connected to switching circuitry 123, whichever operator is atthe workstation to which the call has been directed has immediate accessto the initial processing information associated with the call. In apreferred embodiment the cross-matching of the caller with the databaseis done automatically, and pertinent information on the call isdisplayed at the receiving opcrator's workstation as or before the callis received.

In still another embodiment of the present invention agent-predictiverouting is incorporated into machine-intelligence to expedite routing ina most cost-effective manner. Agent-predictive routing according to thepresent invention is based on knowledge of latency experienced inequipment while implementing certain operations, together withreasonable (but non-obvious) assumptions that may be made to expediteoperations. It is in implementing the assumptions that the inventionslie in the instant aspects and embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a timeline diagram showing latency in operations withoutbenefit of enhancements of the instant embodiment of the invention, andunique operational decisions according to the instant embodiment of thepresent invention. An upper time line beginning with arrow 401represents latency for sequential events in routing and completing anactual call, given the parallel-path architecture represented by FIG. 3.The lower of the two timelines in FIG. 4 represents operations accordingto further embodiments of the present invention described below.

Arrow 401 in FIG. 4 represents an incoming call (vector 107, FIG. 3). Atpoint 410 input information has been elicited from the caller (orotherwise determined), part of which is used in a process to determinerouting. The time represented by arrow 402 termed "router queue" in FIG.4 is the latency experienced for a typical call between the time pointthat initial processing is done and the routing decision is made at timepoint 411.

The next significant delay in routing is represented by arrow 403,labeled Network Connection Latency, which is the time required for arouted call to be received at, for example, telephony switch 123 (FIG.3) at call-in center 121, to be further routed to an agent at one of theworkstations, and for the agent to answer the call (pick up). Appendedto this time in the course of events is time represented by arrow 404,which is the latency experienced in forwarding machine knowledge of theagent's having answered the call to telephony server T-S 223, forexample. Further latency is experienced, represented by arrow 405, whichis the time required for knowledge of the agent having picked up thecall to be transferred back to the initial processing center.

At the end of the sequential time represented by arrow 405, machineknowledge of the agent busy is resident at statistical server 208 (FIG.3), and is thus available to be used in routing decisions as describedin embodiments above. This point in time is represented by down arrow422. Following the time line beyond arrow 405, the time for the actualcall is represented by arrow 406. During this time the agent and thecaller are typically engaged in dialogue.

At the end of arrow 406, the call is completed and disconnected (bothparties hang up). Machine knowledge of the termination of the call,however, is not instant. There is again latency in the terminationknowledge transferring from switch 123 to T-S 223, and from T-S 223 tostatistical server 208. These times are represented by arrows 404a and405a respectively. At the end of the time represented by arrow 405amachine knowledge of the agent being free is resident at statisticalprocessor 208 and is available for routing decisions.

In real-time terms, the Network Connection Latency (403) is typicallyabout 10 seconds. The telephony switch to T-S latency (404) is typicallyabout 4 to 5 seconds, and the T-S to stat. Server latency (405) istypically about 4 or 5 seconds as well. The total latency then, forrouting a call to a call-in center and returning knowledge that theagent is busy is about 20 seconds.

At times of very heavy loading a system of the sort described may handleas many as one thousand calls per second. In the 20 seconds latency toreturn knowledge of a single call completed, then, there may be as manyas twenty thousand new calls made to be routed. Clearly, especially attimes of heavy load, the latency of 20 seconds or so can create seriousproblems in efficient routing. Unless there is some way to bypass thislatency there may be as many as twenty thousand customers (callers) inwaiting queues. What is clearly needed here is methods allowingprediction of behavior during the narrow time frame within the overalllatency time.

In an embodiment of the present invention a reasonable assumption ismade that after a call is transferred to an agent that is known to befree, that the agent is then busy. This is not always true, because asmall percentage of calls may be mis-routed or somehow lost and nevercompleted. The assumption, however, will be true most of the time.

Assumption of agent busy is represented in FIG. 4 by down arrow 421, ata point in time corresponding closely to routing decision 411. A busyflag (semaphore used) is posted in statistical processor 208 for thisagent at that point in time, and the busy flag is maintained for theknown full latency time (in this case about twenty seconds) until theactual return of agent busy knowledge. By this action routing of furthercalls to this agent during this latency time is avoided. Routing offurther calls to this same destination, especially at times ofrelatively heavy loading, without this assumption and busy flag, wouldbe very likely otherwise, and most such calls would be mis-routed andforced to start over.

In this embodiment of the invention, once knowledge of the agent busy isreturned in real time (down arrow 422), in this embodiment of theinvention the busy flag is reset to continue for a time determined byrecent call history. This time is represented by arrow 432. Therationale for this action is that the actual call may be quite short,but the time for return in real time of machine knowledge that the agentis free is further delayed by switch to T-S latency (404a) and T-S tostatistical processor latency (405a). By releasing the busy flag afteran historically-determined average time for actual calls, more efficientuse of the agents time may be made. Otherwise no further calls are everrouted to an agent until knowledge of agent free is returned in realtime (423).

There are some difficulties that may occur in the embodiment heredescribed. One of these is the instance wherein a call routed to anagent is lost before reaching the agent. This situation s represented inFIG. 5.

In FIG. 5 part of the upper time line is the same as for FIG. 4, exceptthe call is somehow lost, therefore there is no real-time return ofagent busy as at down-arrow 422 in FIG. 4. In this case the assumptionof agent busy is made at time 421 as before. At the end of the expectedtotal latency time for real-time return of agent busy, however, there isno returned acknowledgment of agent busy. At this point (522) the busysemaphore is released, and the flag is set for agent free (arrow 523).The loss of an agent resource, then, is limited to about the latencytime for real-time return of agent busy.

In another aspect of the invention latency is avoided by dynamicrequeing of apparently mis-routed calls. Referring again to FIG. 5, atthe point of missing confirmation of agent busy (522), in the embodimentdescribed immediately above, the busy flag is reset for agent free. Theassumption made in that prior embodiment was that the call was lost. Thecaller, for example, hung up or was somehow disconnected.

In an alternative preferred embodiment, at the point that latency timehas expired and there is no return of agent busy, a different assumptionis made. In this case the assumption is that the call was not lost, butsimply mis-routed. This assumption that the call was mis-routed assumesthe call is still active; that is, the caller is still on-line andexpecting to make connection. In this embodiment, at the end of latencytime for return of agent busy signal after a call has been routed (522),in the absence of return of the signal that the agent is busy, the callis cut off and requeued at the SCP, to be again routed to the best fitagent according to real-time data in statistical processor 208. Thisdata will have been updated in the interval, but since the agent to whomthe mis-routed call was originally routed has been assumed to be busy,but apparently is not, in a preferred embodiment the call is againrouted to the same agent as initially routed.

In an embodiment of the present invention described above, an incomingcall is routed to a remote telephone station by a routing intelligencenegotiating a semaphore with an intelligence at the remote station.Referring to FIG. 3, this process is implemented by, for example,statistical server 208 negotiating over network link 210 with telephonyserver 223, which monitors activity of telephony switch 123. Statisticalserver 208 requests the status of a station having a skill profilefitting the needs of a call to be routed, and server 223, finding thestation free (not busy) returns the semaphore, which will typically bethe telephone number of the station. Once the semaphore is returned, thestatistical server causes the call to be routed to the telephonestation, and a data packet associated with the call is transmitted inparallel over the network link, synchronized by the semaphore.

The process of the prior embodiment as just described involves somelatency in communication over the network link before the call may berouted. To avoid this latency, in an alternative preferred embodiment ofthe invention, the routing system determines a telephone station whichfits the needs of an incoming call and which should be free (not busy)according to updated real-time information in the routing system. Thisinformation, as described previously, is updated in a continuing basis,suffering from only the latency of the network connection and the linkbetween a telephony server (223) and a switch (123).

Once a station has been selected as fitting the profile and"should-be-free", the call is immediately routed. A semaphore is set inStatistical processor 208 that the telephone is then busy, and theassociated data packet is sent over the network connection (210) withthe telephone number associated, so the telephony server at thedestination may apply the data to the correct call.

In yet another aspect of the invention allowance is made foragent-initiated requeing of mis-routed calls in intelligent call-routingsystems of the sort described herein. In some cases, even with exerciseof due caution, and perhaps even in some cases due to characteristics ofrouting in some embodiments of the invention, a small percentage ofcalls are mis-routed.

In case of a mis-routed call, the first indication does not come untilthe agent to whom the call is directed picks up. For example, a customermay, in initial processing, indicate a need for help in configuring aparticular product. An error in initial processing, however, may resultin routing the call to an agent trained for a different product ormodel. This will become apparent rather quickly when the agent answersthe call and begins a dialogue with the customer.

The loss of time due to latency in connecting the call is notrecoverable, but in aspects of the present invention further difficultythat might accrue is avoided. The least advantageous response at theagent's end is to simply inform the customer that the call must havebeen mis-routed, and to suggest that the caller (customer) hang up andplace a new call, hoping for a better result. This response alsoportends the maximum incremental loading for the system, as alloperations must then be redone. Still, without unique capabilities inthe system, this response is the only one available to the agent.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention control routines areprovided at telephony server 223 allowing variable response for an agentreceiving a mis-routed call. The control routines could reside elsewherein the system, but the telephony server is a convenient repository.Three different paths are described immediately below for agent responseto a mis-routed call. In every case the activity is in response to asignal initiated by the agent. The appropriate signal may be given in avariety of different ways, as will be apparent to those with skill inthe art, such as a pattern of "clicks" at the handset switch, one ormore inputs on the keypad of the agent's touch-tone phone, or a signalby pointer device or keyboard input at the agents workstation terminal,which is connected in a network to a telephony server such as T-S 223(FIG. 3).

1. Giving a first agreed-to signal, the agent may return the call to SCP101, which is, in fact a telephony switch. This signal causescommunication via network connection 210 (in the case of T-S 223) backto statistical server 208, which instructs the call to be re-routed toan agent equipped to provide the needed service. The input by the agentcorrects the routing according to information from the customer. In thiscase the call may be inserted in the queue at SCP 101 ahead of othercalls placed after the instant call was first placed, to expedite themis-routed call and avoid further delay for a perhaps already iratecustomer. This first option may be thought of as a file-and-forgetoption for the agent first receiving the mis-routed call.

2. In some cases the mis-routing may have occurred for a reason thatwill require the first agent receiving the call to communicate withanother agent. For example, even though a careful job may be done inlisting skills for various agents, the skills listed for a particularagent may not be exact, and a call may be routed to an agent who is not,in fact, equipped to provide the needed service. In this case, the agentfirst receiving the call may signal re-routing for the call, and beconnected to the agent to which the call is forwarded before thecustomer is connected to that agent. This may happen in any of severalways. The call may be re-routed from switch 123 or sent back to SCP 101,for example. In any case, the rerouting is done via communicationbetween T-S 223 with statistical server 208 (which controls routing)over digital network connection 210. The first agent is connected to thesecond agent with priority, rather than having to wait in a que like anyother incoming call. The first agent may then determine that the secondagent is indeed capable of providing the needed service, may alsoprovide certain information to the second agent derived from firstcontact with the customer, and then the customer is keyed into the callwith the second agent as the first agent leaves. This option is known asan announcement option, as the customer may be announced to the secondagent without participation by the customer.

3. In a third option a conference may be needed between the first agent,the second agent, and the customer. This may be needed, for example, ifthe customer requests a conference with a supervisor, or if, forexample, the skills of two different agents may be needed to properlyserve the customer's need. In this case, through appropriate signaling,the agent first receiving the call may cause the call to be rerouted toanother agent or supervisor at the same call-in center or at anothercall-in center. The operation is similar to the operation for case (2)described immediately above, except the customer is conferenced in fromthe beginning.

In descriptions above of other embodiments of the present invention adata set unique to each call is sent via the digital network connectionbetween, for example, statistical processor 208 and T-S 223 as the callis routed in parallel over telephony line 105. The data set, along withother information derived from the organization's customer data base maybe displayed on a display at the agent's workstation as an aid inproviding needed service to the calling customer. In all of theinstances of correcting mis-routed calls described immediately above,this data set is forwarded to the new agent with the call.

It will be apparent to those with skill in the art that there are manyalterations that may be made in the embodiments of the invention hereindescribed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Most, and in some cases, all of the functional units of the system inembodiments of the invention may be implemented as code routines inmore-or-less conventional computerized telephony equipment and computerservers. It is well-known that programmers are highly individualistic,and may implement similar functionality by considerably differentroutines. Also, the invention may be applied to widely varying hardwaresystems. Further, the links between servers 223 and 224 to theassociated equipment may be done in a number of ways, and there is abroad variety of equipment that might be adapted to provide the servers223 and 224, and other such servers associated with call centers. Thereare similarly many other alterations inn the embodiments describedherein which will fall within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention in it's several aspects described. The invention is limitedonly by the breadth of the claims below.

What is claimed is:
 1. A telephone call-routing system for re-routing afirst incoming call, comprising:a first network-level telephonyswitching apparatus having a first telephony trunk for receiving andswitching the incoming call; a first Computer Telephony Integration(CTI) processor coupled to the first telephony switching apparatus; aclient-premises call center having a second telephony switchingapparatus connected to individual telephones at a plurality of agentstations and to the first telephony switching apparatus by a telephonytrunk; and a second CTI processor connected to the second telephonyswitching apparatus by a CTI link, to the first CTI processor by adigital network link separate from the telephony trunk, and to computersat individual ones of the agent stations by a local area network (LAN);wherein the first CTI processor controls queuing and routing of incomingcalls, and responds to signals from a first agent received over thedigital network link through the LAN and the second CTI processor tore-route the first incoming call previously routed to the first agentaccording to existing routing rules at the first CTI processor.
 2. Thecall-routing system of claim 1 wherein the first CTI processor queuesthe re-routed first incoming call signaled by the first agent to bere-routed with priority ahead of a second incoming call received at thefirst telephony switching apparatus after the first incoming call. 3.The call-routing system of claim 1 wherein the first CTI processor inre-routing the first incoming call from the first agent to a secondagent causes the first agent to be conferenced with the second agentbefore the re-routed call is connected to the second agent.
 4. Thecall-routing system of claim 1 wherein the first CTI processor inre-routing the first incoming call from the first agent to a secondagent causes the first agent, the second agent and the caller to beconferenced.